


Beautiful Swimmers

by SegaBarrett



Category: Animal Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drug reference, Gen, canon-typical child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 07:37:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15769554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: Lena learns to love the water.





	Beautiful Swimmers

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Animal Kingdom, and I make no money from this.
> 
> A/N: Title is from a book about sea life I spotted.

Pope could vividly remember the day Smurf decided she was going to teach him how to swim. He had been standing at the edge of the pool, shaking and peeking down into the clear, blue water, wondering how deep it went.

And then Smurf had shoved him, and he’d been sinking, sinking, thrashing in the water and sucking in chlorine as his nose and throat burned. When he finally surfaced, arms pulling him up through the blue, he could hear Julia screaming in panic.

“Don’t be dramatic, Julia,” Smurf told her. “See, I told you your brother could do it.”

***

“Uncle Pope, I’m scared.”

Lena was standing at the edge of the pool, her feet just over the edge; Pope could watch her breathing, could almost hear her heart beating quicker.

“It’s okay, Lena. Just walk down the ladder, all right?”

He watched as she turned and made her way down the steps, shivering as she hit the water despite its warmth.

“C’mere.” He waded over and took Lena’s hand in his, showing her where to place it on the wall. “It’s okay. Just kick your legs back. You don’t have to put your face in the water all at once.”

Lena looked up at him with an expression he couldn’t quite read. 

“You can trust me,” Pope said. “Try this…” He gently slid the goggles down over her face, kneading her hair through the strap on the back. “Now, you can see underwater. You can see that there’s nothing there that can hurt you. You know why? Because I would never let it.”

“Never?” Lena asked, grabbing the wall of the pool with one hand, nervously. 

“Never,” Pope promised. “I’ll be right here, and I’ll keep you safe. I know you can do this…” 

Lena sucked in a breath and plopped her head in the water, peeking down at the crystal blue that cut all the way down to the bottom of the pool.

“Now, kick your feet,” Pope instructed, and Lena did the way he’d shown her, little jerks and flaps up-up-up. 

She stuck her head up, turning a little blue, coming up for air.

“You okay?”

“I wanted to do it good for you, Uncle Pope.”

Pope swallowed and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in close. 

“You did, Lena. You did great, okay?” 

“I’m getting chilly,” she admitted quietly, rubbing at her nose. He walked her up the ladder and wrapped her in a blanket.

“Let’s go inside, then.”

***

Lena jumped off the diving board and let her arms cut a swath through the water; spinning, dancing.

She opened her eyes, flew up and let her head slip through the crest, wet hair falling and clinging against her back. She moved over to the ladder and pulled herself up, shaking her hair.

“Hey,” said a voice from the edge of the pool. 

Lena looked over and saw a tall, thin girl.

“Hey,” Lena replied, startled. 

The girl leaned down in a stretch and then back up again, before cocking he head to the side and inquiring, “Isn’t your name Lena?”

Lena slowly nodded.

“Yeah… Why?”

“…I think we went to school together a long time ago.”

Lena wouldn’t have been able to place her otherwise, as her hair was cropped down into a pixie cut and she was tall and lanky, not the too-cute blonde buttercup who she had sheared as a seven-year-old.

“Clarissa,” Lena supplied, and her heat began to beat harder and faster. Of all the people to come back… of all the ways to get caught, now.  
Clarissa stuck her hands in her pocket.

“I thought you got kidnapped back when we were in second grade. You weren’t there all of a sudden… that’s what my mother said. ‘Better go straight home or you’ll get kidnapped like that Blackwell girl.’” She snorted. 

“No, not kidnapped,” Lena replied. “I just moved. I’ve been living with my uncle. I’m fine, you know.” No need to file a report. No need to ever tell anyone about this. Lena wanted to plead but she didn’t know if that would save her. Maybe she should just turn and run.

“Lame,” Clarissa said. “It’s like finding out the hook-handed man just had a nasty run-in with a deli slicer and wasn’t after those couples on Lover’s Lane at all.”  
There was a long pause.

“I’m sorry I cut your hair off,” Lena offered. 

“It’s cool. It kind of suited me.” Clarissa gestured upwards. “I was probably a brat anyway. Private school. What a joke. Now I don’t do school. I just go where the wind takes me and smoke mad grass.”

Lena was now a little less worried about Clarissa calling her in. 

“I’d better get back,” she said anyway. Better not to linger in one place too long. Better not to make too much of an impression. She turned to go back to the locker room.

“Hey, wait,” Clarissa called. “You swim really good and… you got really pretty, you know.”

Lena looked back for just a second and smiled. Uncle Pope never said she was pretty; not because he didn’t think she was, she figured, but just because things like that were weird for him. It felt kind of good to hear it.

“Maybe I’ll see you around,” she called over her shoulder. And then, before she could think better of it, she took a running jump and dove right back into the deep end.


End file.
